Disclaimer: Credit to Jonathan Nolan, Greg Plageman, and the POI writing team for these lovely characters (though Elena is mine). Any bolded sections come straight from the episodes.

DETECTIVE AND MRS. RILEY

Get to the Chopper!

Timeline
• Queensbridge Park
• Elena Cassidy's Home for Retired Assassins (ch 3)
• Fusco Meets the Rileys (ch 4)
• Little Mistress Normal (ch 5)
• Bear's Collection (ch 2)
• Swingers Cruise (ch 6)
• Queen E (ch 1)
• GET TO THE CHOPPER!
• Queensbridge Park epilogue

Episode inspo
FINCH: I know you're good at stealing cars, how do you feel about helicopters?
REESE: It's been a while since I've flown. Might be a little rusty."
FINCH: On the bright side, if you don't remember, it will be a short fall.
— Firewall (s1e23)

"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, we're going to die, we're going to die," Elena mutters.

Reese frowns. There have been multiple times they've been in near-death situations and Elena has not been this terrified. In fact, she'd been exhilarated. It's why Shaw calls her Little Miss Not-So-Normal. But now she's scared they're going to die because he's about to fly a helicopter?

Reese is insulted.

Granted, aviation is not his forte. Hand-to-hand combat, evasive driving [1], and baking and cooking are more his thing.

The last time he'd seriously thought about flying a helicopter, he and Root (they'd known her as Caroline Turing at the time) had been trapped in a hotel penthouse with HR closing in.

In the end, they'd not even gotten to the helicopter, because the FBI had arrived on the helipad.

The last time he'd been in a helicopter, he and Shaw had stolen one to follow Finch and Root (she'd still been their enemy then) across the country as Root tracked down the Machine's location. Shaw had insisted on flying, just like she'd insisted on driving the Ferrari and Benz they'd stolen before the helicopter [2], so he'd gotten a pass that time, too.

This time, however, it's just him and Elena, and he's going to need to get this bird in the air to save both of them.

"Come on, El, where's the trust?" he says as he tries to remember how to start the damn thing. "You flew with Finch all the way to Rome."

"He has a pilot's license [3]!" she points out, as close to hysteria as he's ever heard her.

"What, he showed it to you before you took off?"

"Yes!"

Reese pauses for the briefest moment. Of course Finch did. "It was probably fake," he dismisses. "He made fake IDs for me all the time."

"At least he knew where the 'on' switch was!" Elena snaps. "It's not that thing that looks like a key, is it?"

"Oh. Yeah."

"Oh my God, we're going to die."

He turns it and the engine roars to life. A couple more flicks of switches, and the blades start to whir, and Elena almost regrets pointing it out to him.

She scrambles to put her seatbelt on, though it's much more complicated than a regular one. Seeing her struggle, Reese reaches over and buckles her in before she can tangle the straps any further. He plops a headset over her pretty little ears as well. They're much too large for her but will do the trick.

"You look adorable," he informs her.

She scowls. "I hope I still look adorable when Sameen's scraping us off the grou— ohhh!"

He chooses that moment for liftoff. And Elena has never been the religious type, but she starts praying.

"Elena."

John's voice coming through over the headset snaps Elena out of her blackout. Oh no, not blackout. She just had her eyes squeezed shut.

"Are you all right?" he asks, a little more worriedly.

"Are we alive?"

She hears a disgruntled huff come from her husband. "Yes, El. Come on, don't miss this view."

He can practically hear her thinking about it. After another minute, she opens one eye, then the other.

"Oh, wow ..."

He's too busy looking at her, admiring the look of wonder on her face, illuminated by the rising sun, to remember to keep the helicopter level. They list wildly to the side.

"John!"

"I got it, I got it," he assures her as he gets everything back under control.

She scowls and tries to look pissed at him, but it's hard when the sun's shining on his cheekbones like that, the headset is making his hair stick up adorably, and he's flying a damn helicopter.

"What?" he asks, catching her. But the slight quirk at the corner of his mouth betrays he knows exactly what.

"Don't play dumb, John. Or I'll start to think you're just a pretty face."

Static crackles over the radio. "I swear to God, you flirt at the most awkward times [4]."

Reese snatches up the radio. "Shaw, do you read us?"

"Loud and clear," she confirms. "More sappy than one of Cassidy's romance novels."

"You gonna help me land this thing?"

"There's an open field about three-quarters of a mile west/northwest of you. Think you can make it?"

"I'll try."

"John!"

"I'm surprised you remembered how to fly one of those things," Shaw says. They can both hear her smirk over the radio.

"I'm surprised, too," Reese admits. He ignores Elena's look of shock and outrage.

"Just try not to end up a pancake, Reese. I forgot to bring the spatula. And Cassidy?"

"Yes?" Elena squeaks.

"Try not to wet your pants."

Landing is worse than taking off, Elena decides. Seeing the ground coming up to meet you is much worse than having it fall away from under you. Especially when your husband — your admittedly gorgeous husband — has just admitted he doesn't really know what he's doing.

"Elena?" John says as they drop below 500 feet.

"What?!" she snaps.

"You might want to close your eyes."

She hastily complies. "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, we're going to die, we're going to die."

"Elena."

"Oh my God, we're going to die."

"El, look. We've landed. Terra firma."

She opens one eye, then the other.

They're safely on the ground, which she could kiss. But she opts for kissing the pilot instead when he leans over to release her seatbelt.

He grins when they finally break for air. "I should take you flying more often."

"We are never doing that again," she declares, punching him in the arm, though it hurts her hand far more than it hurts him.

There's a dangerous glint in his eye. "You know I like a challenge, El, especially when you get all riled up —"

The door swings open. "You know, it only counts as the Mile High Club if you're actually in the air, right?"

Reese leans back with a sigh. "Shaw."

"Come on, lovebirds. You can make out later. Car's running, and we've got the suburban police brigade closing in. Reese, you're in the trunk. Pixie, you're up front with me. They're not looking for two chicks."

"Guess we'll need to join the club some other time, El," Reese says as he folds his long legs into the trunk.

Elena smiles sweetly. "Who said I'm not already a member?"

That wipes the smugness from his expression. "What? Who —?"

She slams the trunk shut on his questions and hops into the passenger seat beside Shaw, who smirks proudly at her.

"El?" Reese taps the side of the car to get her attention. "Do you mean you've — ow, Shaw!"

Shaw revs the car, the loud purr of the engine drowning out Reese's words before she peels off down the street without any regard for the man rolling around in the trunk.

[1] Reese's skills
BEALE: I feel like I already know you.
REESE: Sir?
BEALE: You enlisted in '93, rose from infantry to rangers to special forces. In '05, you joined the agency and trained at the Farm, scored in the top 10% of your class, and displayed particular ... creativity in hand-to-hand combat and evasive driving exercises.
— SNAFU (s5e03)

[2] Zero Day and God Mode (Season 2 finale)

[3] Finch's pilot's license
CARTER: Finch, what are you doing?
FINCH: Reese is on an island looking for a man violent enough to pull out another man's teeth. Now I can't warn him. I have to get there myself.
CARTER: I'm pretty sure all the roads are closed now. How do you think you're gonna get out there?
FINCH: Think I'll use my pilot's license.
— Proteus (s2e17)

[4] Awkward flirting
ROOT: I liked that idea, that even if we're not real, we represent a dynamic, a tiny finger tracing a line in the infinite, a shape. And then we're gone.
SHAW: That's supposed to make me feel better? I'm a shape?
ROOT: Yeah. And, darlin', you got a great shape.
SHAW: I swear to God, you flirt at the most awkward times.
— The Day the World Went Away (s5e10)